Eco Shopping Bag

UK consumers use an estimated 10 billion plastic bags a year - that’s 167 per person according to DEFRA and every single plastic bag you have used in your lifetime hasn’t broken down yet. There are all still out there on the landfills - or even worse in our country sides!

A convenient alternative to the single use plastic bags was missing and this why we have designed the FootprintBag packs. For some people it might look as we are replacing one plastic bag with another. But you can’t oversimplify natural vs. synthetic fabrics for bags. We have researched potential materials very carefully before we opted for the ripstop polyester. We have experimented with natural products but we didn’t end up with an end product that would work. In order to justify our decision you have to look at other factors as well – like the design and lifecycle of our bags.

We wanted to design something that is neat and compact so it fits into a woman’s handbag or a car glove compartment. So there is no excuse to forget it on your shopping trips. In order to end up with a compact overall size our shopping bags had to fold up and fit into tiny interior pouches.

I agree with all the environmentalists out there, the best reusable bags are organic cotton carriers. But you have to be very committed to always bring numerous bulky cotton bags to your shopping trip and unfortunately not all people are. Due to the thickness of cotton, this material didn’t suit our design.

Our research showed that most people that want to do their bit for the environment are confronted with the following problem: If they remember to bring bags to the supermarket, they either end up with too many or not enough. In the later case they keep on adding to the collection of reusable bags lying at home. Our main concern is offering reusable bags that people will actually use. You will probably agree that a growing mountain of reusable bags that never leave your home isn’t good for the earth!

We strongly believe if people have a compact pack of multiple bags it is easier for them to reuse and therefore we can convert more people to do so. We have customer feedback saying that since they have a FootprintBag pack they have not once been short of reusable bags on my shopping trip and therefore there was no need to pick up a disposable plastic carrier or to pay for yet another reusable bag at the checkout point.

No system is perfect, and reusable bags do have an impact on the environment, but it is significantly less than that of disposable bags. Our bags have the potential to replace thousands of plastic bags in its lifetime. The only way this is possible is to construct it from durable, high quality material such as ripstop polyester. FootprintBags are made very well and are long-lasting and are therefore a one-off purchase.

It is our strong belief that with a convenient multipack more people will decide to use reusable shopping bags. The end result is a huge net positive impact on the environment.

If you would like to know more about our innovative Eco Shopping Bag please visit Footprint Bag.